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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Injuries can’t be an excuse for the Chicago Blackhawks being deep in the dumps right now, but they can’t be completely dismissed either.
Two nights after the team lost Tyler Johnson to injury — with Taylor Raddysh lost two nights before that — the Hawks saw another forward go down. Anthony Beauvillier left Tuesday’s 3-0 loss to the Nashville Predators during the second period.
Beauvillier had just been promoted to the top line.
“It didn’t look good,” coach Luke Richardson said. “We were short-staffed at the wrong time. Nick (Foligno) was in the box as well.”
Keep in mind, there’s still no definitive timeline for Seth Jones, Joey Anderson or Andreas Athanasiou to return.
Does it feel like the Hawks are swimming upstream with injuries?
“It’s been from before Day 1 this year,” said Richardson, whose Hawks were shut out for the first time since Oct. 24 against the Boston Bruins. “You know what? Teams go through it and if we can be strong enough and find our way through this at the toughest time, that makes you a better team.
“So we’ve got to not sit and look for someone else to do it because it’s going to be us ourselves doing it — all 20 guys that are in the lineup every night. It doesn’t matter who it is.”
It’s likely the Hawks will make a call to Rockford, but it’s not like the IceHogs aren’t dealing with their own bumps and bruises.
Colton Dach is in concussion protocol. The IceHogs recalled forward Kyle Maksimovich from the ECHL’s Indy Fuel on Tuesday with Bryce Kindopp sidelined by a left groin strain.
“We’re probably running low on contracts at this point,” Richardson quipped. “But you know what, we’ve just got to stay positive.”
Here are four takeaways from the loss.
1. Arvid Söderblom didn’t have to be lights out, just steady.
Or just stop the bleeding.
It started with getting torched for seven goals Dec. 14 in Seattle and continued with a four-goal third period Dec. 23 in St. Louis (six goals against overall). He also gave up two goals in 15 minutes of relief of Petr Mrázek on Sunday in Dallas.
Richardson has delivered the same message throughout the slump.
“We believe in him,” he said of Söderblom pregame. “Just be big and confident and gobble up pucks around the crease because this is a big, heavy team down low around the net. It’s another opportunity.”
Things were going well Tuesday until Brett Seney was called for holding the stick and the Predators went on the game’s first power play.
Gustav Nyquist scored on the unit’s first shot, roofing it over Söderblom’s glove-side shoulder, a stoppable goal.
Söderblom did yeoman’s work fending off a four-shot barrage with two minutes left in the first. He faced six high-danger chances in five-on-five in the opening period and six more through the rest of the game, according to naturalstattrick.com.
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He allowed another power-play goal to Ryan O’Reilly in the third period. Luke Evangelista’s goal was an empty-netter.
“I felt good,” Söderblom said. “A little disappointed about that first goal, felt like I could have done a better job there playing the shooter. But other than that, I felt like my game was where I want it to be.
“I feel like I saw a lot of pucks, not many rebounds, some extra saves as well.”
Richardson said Söderblom “was excellent tonight.”
O’Reilly’s goal came on a five-on-three penalty kill.
“They played it down to (Filip) Forsberg and my job there is to take him as a shooter. And then he passed it back door and then you have to kind of take it from there and just try to stretch over,” Söderblom said. “It was a good play by them, but there’s always a chance. There’s no such thing as impossible stops.”
However, Richardson said, “Those guys are dominant down low and that was a nice play. I don’t think anyone is stopping that.”
Of course the Hawks would wait until Söderblom had one of his best performances in net to have their sticks go cold.
“Would love to win, especially for him — he did lots of crazy saves today,” Nikita Zaitsev said. “Unfortunately we didn’t, but still it’s a good game.”
Asked if he was frustrated by the lack of goal support, Söderblom said, “Both yes and no.”
“There’s nothing I can do about it,” he said. “My job is to stop the puck, not scoring. But of course it’s frustrating at times to play good but not get the results.”
2. Oh, Canada: Upset weighs heavily on Connor Bedard.
Bedard led the Canadian team to gold at last year’s World Juniors, so it was particularly painful to watch Czechia upset Canada 3-2 in the quarterfinals Tuesday.
“I know a lot of guys on the team, and being a Canadian, I take a lot of pride in that, so I feel really bad for them,” said Bedard, who was named NHL Rookie of the Month for December. “It sucks for sure.”
It’s even worse for Bedard that he has to share a locker room with Mrázek, who was gloating just a bit after morning skate.
“Pretty insufferable,” Bedard said with a smile when asked about the Hawks goalie. “I mean, I’d be the same if Canada were to win.
“I just feel bad for those guys on that team and how hard they played, and it’s a dream come true to get to play in that tournament. And a lot of guys are obviously aging out next year, so that sucks. But they gave it their all.”
Asked if he felt compelled to console Bedard, his fellow Canadian, Richardson said, “No, I stayed out of that.
“Petr’s having some fun with that today. As you heard him in the background here, he’s collecting all his money from his bets. I think he was mad that one of the young guys has never used an ATM before, so he was trying to give instructions on that so now he can get his money.”
3. The Hawks didn’t get a long look at Anthony Beauvillier on the top line.
The Hawks rolled with the same lineup change they worked on during Monday’s practice.
Coaches tried out Ryan Donato and Foligno with Bedard and Philipp Kurashev in the past. The Foligno combination has produced eight goals but has given up 14 at even strength in 168 1/2 minutes, according to NaturalStatTrick.com. The Donato combination has produced three goals and allowed four.
One key difference with Donato is the line’s shooting percentage is 58% versus 40% with Foligno.
On Monday, Richardson called Donato “tenacious” but added that playing 200 feet “is not the strong suit of his game. He’s in the NHL, everybody can skate, but the pace is not at the level.”
However, speed is an element Beauvillier brings.
“He was skating really well the last two games,” Richardson said pregame, “and he’s got a good, defensive conscience as well. He reloads really well.
“He got a few pucks back last game because of that, so hopefully that can feed into that line having more puck possession. He’s played a little bit with them already.”
Before the game, Bedard said Beauvillier is “super fast, super skilled.”
“I haven’t played with him too much,” he said, “but the few times I have it’s a lot of fun having that speed and skill and creativity that he has.”
Unfortunately for Beauvillier, the main highlight he produced was when he lost a skate blade during the middle of the second period and had to push off on one leg to grab some bench — literally.
Beauviller left the game at that point. He sustained an upper-body injury, Richardson said.
“We’ll have to get it reevaluated and examined more thoroughly tomorrow and see where he’s at,” he said. “He’ll be coming with us” to New York.
4. The Hawks had battle drills — did it work?
After getting hammered 8-1 Sunday in Dallas, you knew Monday’s practice would have some form of physicality/punishment, so they did battle drills, particularly working in the low slot.
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Seney didn’t have anything to do with that debacle, but he got called up from Rockford just in time for practice.
“It was a good skate, good battle day and it felt good to be out there with the guys,” he said. “It was a little tiring, but that’s part of it.”
It beats a bag skate.
“We got smacked around on New Year’s Eve against Dallas, so it’s something we needed for sure,” Bedard said.
So did Richardson get more fight this time around?
“I thought the guys battled,” he said. “It was the first step of where we want to go. We don’t like the results, we can’t accept them in this league, but the coaching staff was proud of how we asked them to battle yesterday in practice and bring it to tonight’s game.
“Unfortunately we didn’t get any luck around their net. But the process of how we want to play was there.”